


Sweet Talk

by the_rat_wins



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Fluff, High School, M/M, Pre-Canon, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-18 20:34:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13689324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rat_wins/pseuds/the_rat_wins
Summary: Ian doesn't like candy hearts. They're chalky and gross and Mickey Milkovich keeps throwing them at his head.(Pre-canon high-school Valentine's Day fluff)





	Sweet Talk

_ Thwip. _

Ian jerked his head up from his math textbook, his eyes falling on the thing that had just hit him in the head, now lying innocently on the table in front of him.

A purple candy heart.

SWEET it said.

He picked it up and looked suspiciously around the library. 

There was a giggling group of freshmen two tables over but he didn’t see any candy boxes or Valentines, just paper and pens and library books.

The student council meeting up front was talking about fundraising, with a list of themes for the spring dance written on the whiteboard.

In the back corner, next to the windows, Mickey and Iggy Milkovich were lounging. Well, Mickey was lounging, his feet up on the table, his chair tipped back on two legs. Iggy was scribbling something on a piece of paper.

As Ian watched, Mickey lifted the little cardboard box in his hand and shook a few candy hearts into his mouth. He crunched them loudly, staring back at Ian. Then he grinned. Mean and wide. Like a shark.

Ian shook head and tried to focus on the math problem in front of him again. Mickey probably had it out for Lip this week. Ian remembered when they’d actually kind of been friends as kids, but Mickey had broken one of Lip’s Hot Wheels—a rare and precious birthday gift from Monica—and it had all been downhill from there. And when Lip and Mickey were having a problem, Mickey was more than happy to take it out on any Gallagher he could get his hands on. Ian wasn’t going to fall for the bait.

_ Thwip. _

Ian gritted his teeth. That one had bounced off his ear and hit the floor.

_ Thwip. _

Mickey was clearly perfecting his aim. The next one landed right in front of Ian, on his textbook.

BE MINE.

Ian brushed it off so it sat next to the other one, and squinted at where he had started writing the next problem down in his notebook.  _ If x equals 12 . . . _

_ Thwip thwip thwip. _ Three more hearts: one hit Ian’s forehead, another his cheek, and when he lifted his head to glare at Mickey, the last one hit him on the nose. Mickey tried and failed to smother a guffaw at the look on Ian's face.

Ian narrowed his eyes, and glanced toward the librarian, who was staring at her computer behind the circulation desk. Even the teachers didn’t want to mess with the Milkoviches if they didn’t have to.

Fine. Whatever. He needed to get this homework done, and Mickey was wasting the only free time he had at school to do it.

Ian slammed his book shut and gathered up all the candy hearts, chalky in his sweaty palm. He marched over to the table in the corner. Mickey raised his eyebrows. Iggy kept scribbling.

“These are disgusting,” Ian told Mickey, and dropped the handful of candy into his lap. “If you’re going to be annoying, at least throw something good.”

Mickey stared back at him, then curled his lip in a sneer. Ian glared for another second, then turned around and stalked back to his own table. He could feel Mickey’s eyes burning a hole in the back of his head, but he refused to give him the satisfaction of turning around.

Ian managed to get through the next three problems in blissful peace and quiet—except for the obnoxious freshmen, whose teacher kept yelling at them—though he actually wasn’t sure if he had the right answers. Ms. Collins only assigned the ones that weren’t listed in the back of the book, so he never knew if he was on the right track or not. He wrote down the equation for the next problem, then started chewing on the end of his pencil while he thought about how to solve it.

Mickey’s chair legs hit the ground hard enough that Ian could hear it, even though the floor was carpeted. Ian didn't look up, but he couldn’t help but notice when Mickey reached over and crumpled up Iggy’s piece of paper.

“Eh!” Iggy protested, and Mickey bounced the paper ball off Iggy’s head, then leaned his chair back again. Ian winced—even he could tell that was a mistake. Iggy hooked one foot under Mickey’s chair and tipped it over backward. Mickey flailed but didn’t manage to keep his balance, falling sideways to the ground with the chair on top of him.

Even the librarian couldn’t ignore that.  But before she could come over and kick them out, Mickey and Iggy got up and sauntered out of the library, like they were doing her a favor. 

Ian shook his head. He had twelve problems left and only half an hour to do them, but at least now he would be able to focus.

Except, it turned out, he still couldn’t. Without the distraction of Mickey throwing things to keep him entertained, he couldn't avoid the truth of the matter: his math homework was just kind of…boring.

He didn’t even have any candy or anything. Sure, candy hearts  _ were _ disgusting, but it was better than nothing. And sometimes, the printing on the messages got all blurry or off center, and they ended up saying stupid random shit like PEA or BE GOO. (Not that the stuff that was on them normally wasn’t also stupid and random.)

Feeling around in his pocket, he realized he at least had a cigarette left from the pack he’d swiped from Lip’s dresser, and his lighter in his backpack. Leaving the rest of his stuff there—if anyone wanted to copy off his algebra homework, they were probably going to get what they deserved—he ducked into the bathroom for a smoke. He'd be able to focus better after a break, probably.

When he came back, the freshmen were gone and the student council meeting was finally wrapping up, but Mickey was back, alone this time, sitting in the corner by the window.

Ian rolled his eyes, then pointedly went and sat on the other side of his own table, so his back was to Mickey. He settled into his chair and looked down at his textbook.

_ THWIP. _

Whatever had just bounced off the back of his head, it was bigger and heavier than a candy heart, and Mickey had thrown it pretty hard.

Ian spun around, but before he could say a word, Mickey looked pointedly down at the ground.

It was a heart-shaped piece of chocolate, wrapped in red foil. Ian blinked, then leaned down and picked it up. He flipped it over—there was a place to write names on the back, like when you had to give one piece of candy to everyone in your class as a little kid.

FROM: DANIEL

TO: ALISA

“Alisa?” he said, then looked up at Mickey, who was staring back at him, blank-faced.

Ian shrugged, then unwrapped it and popped it in his mouth.

Mickey pulled his box of candy hearts out, and threw one into the air, then caught it in his mouth, crunching down on it like it was an ice cube.

“Gross,” Ian muttered, the melting chocolate sweet and thick on his tongue. He turned back to his math homework, but not before he saw Mickey grinning. Less mean, this time.

**Author's Note:**

> I know the candy hearts thing is, like, the ultimate Valentine's Day fic cliche, but muse-wise, I'm in a bit of a "beggars can't be choosers" scenario, so bear with me, gentle readers! xoxo
> 
> (Also, my tradition of posting holiday fic immediately after the holiday is over CONTINUES!)


End file.
